Monaco to Hold Dealer Congress in June

Some 550 dealers are expected to attend Monaco Coach Corp.’s 2006 Dealer Congress, June 26-28 at the Gaylord Palms, Orlando Fla. – the company’s first major dealer gathering since acquiring towable manufacturer R-Vision Inc. in November.
Monaco will debut its 2007 model lineup at the meeting in addition to introducing some enhancements to its year-old Franchise of the Future program.
“We are going to be giving our dealers some additional product,” said Mike Snell, Monaco vice president of sales and marketing. “We have a lot of full-wall slideouts that we are continuing to develop, and one area of the market we’ve not been successful at is Class C’s. That is going to be a focus this year.
“And with the acquisition of R-Vision, we can get into a lot of different price points and segments in the market.”
One specific new product that Monaco will show dealers at the congress is Holiday Rambler’s redesigned top-of-the-line Navigator (MSRP: $434,047) with 84-inch ceilings and new front and rear caps on a Roadmaster S-Series semi-monocoque chassis powered standard by a Cummins ISM-II 500-hp diesel engine.
Meanwhile, the Coburg, Ore., towable and motorized manufacturer announced recently that it will consolidate most of its brand-based consumer rallies.
Starting with the “Western Family Round-up” in September in Salem, Ore., Monaco each year will sponsor one East Coast and one West Coast rally for owners of Monaco, Beaver and Safari RVs. Holiday Rambler rallies will continue to be held separately from the other three.
The consolidation of Monaco, Beaver and Safari rallies is intended to save money and human resources, said Page Robertson, a special assistant to the CEO.
“We were tying up staff and service for weeks on end,” said Robertson. “It’s very expensive to do these rallies. We are going to save money.”
In recent years, separate East and West Coast rallies for the three brands followed each other on successive weeks twice a year.
Monaco expects between 750 coaches at the combined rally at the Oregon State Fairground in Salem. The individual rallies, Robertson said, typically would have attracted between 300 and 400 coaches each.
The East Coast Rally will be the third week in January at the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando.